The U.S. territory has been struggling with a financial crisis for years.

Trump praised Rossello and the federal response to the hurricane. But video that aired during the MSNBC segment showed the president dismissing Cruz. In the long term, it must focus on rebuilding to stabilize and strengthen Puerto Rico's crippled, debt-ridden economy, modernize its infrastructure, and encourage young people to stay and tourists to return. He thanked her and then walked away without acknowledging her words.

But Trump also suggested their suffering was partly the fault of officials who had allowed the island's infrastructure and economy to degrade before the hurricanes and said local people should be doing more to help the recovery.

Two major hurricanes - Irma and Maria - hit Puerto Rico in September, leaving over 90 percent of the island's citizens without power and half without running water. Well, you know what?

"Every death is a horror but if you look at a real catastrophe like Katrina, and you look at the tremendous - hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people that died, and you look at what happened here, with really a storm that was just totally overpowering, nobody's ever seen anything like this", Trump said to government officials.

"That is not the land of the free and the home of the brave, the beacon of democracy that people have learned to look up to".

Mainly, Cruz zeroed in on Trump having a "communication issue". "You can say goodbye to that".

"I said to the president is that this is about saving lives". Trump apparently didn't like Cruz calling for more aid than what had been given to her and her country, and resorted to his commonly used Twitter attacks to essentially show his displeasure with her remarks.

"He really puts the ass in compassion", Kimmel said.

The White House budget office director said on Wednesday that the President "meant" that the island will have to "figure out a way to solve its debt problem". "While some of the news coverage is Fake, most showed great warmth and friendship", he wrote.

The helicopters and MarineMV-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft will help meet one of Rossello's priorities in getting food, water and medical assistance to communities in the island's interior, where roads have been impassable.